Omidyar Network Spins Out New $100 Million Venture Fund Called Spero Ventures

Shripriya Mahesh was a week from presenting to the board at Omidyar Network about the future of their startup investments last year when she got the news in August of 2017: she had breast cancer.

Mahesh was supposed to be pitching Pierre Omidyar, the billionaire founder of eBay, her plan to spin out the Network’s for-profit investments into a new venture fund centered on well-being, human connections and the future of work.

Instead, facing the prospect of a potentially shorter life, Mahesh found herself reassessing her own priorities. They coalesced around three things: her health after the diagnosis, her family, friends and children, and her remaining time at work. Mahesh was heartened. “They were the same three things as the fund,” she says. “That was so validating.”

Today, doctors say that following chemotherapy and surgery, Mahesh has no traces of cancer left. And her idea for a fund is becoming a reality as a new $100 million venture capital fund spun out of Omidyar Network.

Called Spero Ventures, the fund counts Omidyar as its sole limited partner and will include 13 for-profit investments made by Mahesh and her colleagues while they were part of Omidyar Network. Mahesh and her fellow partner Rob Veres, as well as employees Ha Nguyen, Sara Eshelman and Christina Li have already made two investments on their own, in Fathom and Markov.

Spero Ventures will invest primarily in Series A and seed deals, as well as the occasional Series B, Mahesh says, focusing on companies along those three themes that can achieve “impact at scale.” Because Omidyar is Spero’s sole limited partner, Mahesh says that Spero can be more patient as an investor than its venture peers, able to advocate a slower approach to future fundraising and without pressure for quick financial returns. But her team can reach investment decisions faster as their own firm than they could as part of Omidyar Network, she says.

As for what types of companies fit Mahesh’s model of positive impact, she points to Airbnb, Tesla and eBay. Mahesh herself is a veteran of eBay, having run its product team before leaving tech temporarily to study filmmaking at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. With Spero, she reunites with Veres, a former eBay colleague.

Omidyar Network has built a franchise upon impact investing, writing checks for about $1.2 billion over the last 11 years into for-profit and non-profit companies. At Spero, Mahesh says the mission will be to combine impact with top tier returns. “We are a regular VC whose filter and thesis is that mission,” she says. “We hope our colleagues in venture capital will welcome us with a high five.”